We had a beautiful day for exploring Ford's Greenfield Village. We had been told there was a lot to see so we started a bit after 10 in the morning. I parked in the wrong lot so we probably had a quarter mile hike in by the time we reached the entry gate.
Our first stop was the Firestone Farm (as in Firestone tires). It was a fully functional farm with folks working the field, doing chores and preparing meals as they would have done in the late 1800's.
Firestone Farm - Benjamin and Catherine were third-generation owner-operators of this farm. They raised three children, including tire-maker, Harvey Firestone.
Decades of selective breeding gave some merino sheep wrinkled skin. This effectively doubled the amount of fine woolen fleece.
Liberty Craftworks was an area of the village dedicated to various crafts (including pottery, glass blowing and weaving) and industry (including sawmills, gristmills, machine shops and printing). Each activity was demonstrated in authentically recreated facilities allowing visitors to see first hand a bit of life more than 100 years ago.
The glass blowing demonstration had the school kids mesmerized.
Cityscape Bowl, 1998 by Jay Musler
The machine shop was complete down to the steam-powered engine turning the overhead drive wheels. For a few bucks, you could turn your own souvenir brass candlestick on the vintage lathe.
The Armington & Sims Machine Shop & Foundry is a steam-powered shop constructed in Greenfield Village in 1929. It was named in honor of the shop that was originally located in Providence, Rhode Island, that built high-speed steam engines for Edison’s New York Pearl Street Station.
My Grampa Hayes gave David an anvil just like this one. He got it from his grandfather who started his blacksmith shop in California in the mid-1800's.
A young lady having her hand at turning a brass candlestick.
Maybe my favorite section was the Railroad Junction. Inside the roundhouse, two fully restored locomotives were on display. You could even go into the pit to view the workings of the locomotive from below.
This roundhouse was built in 1884 in Marshall, Michigan, for the Detroit, Toledo & Milwaukee Railroad. Today it services the locomotives and equipment of Greenfield Village's Weiser Railroad.
Rides were available in authentic Model T's or in horse drawn carriages or wagons or even on the steam driven train - we choose to walk the entire 80 acres.
A beautiful bowl made, by Robert Jones, from one piece of Baltic Birch wood, which has been laser cut and glued together to give it a 3 dimensional look.
Outside the recreated Menlo Park Complex, "Thomas Edison" told us all about his concept to provide electric lighting to every household. He was addressing us as reporters and prospective investors so he was giving it his best sales pitch. Inside the lab was recreated with the help of one of Edison's senior technicians and photos of the original laboratory.
Thomas Edison's Menlo Park Laboratory was the heart of the Menlo Park complex. Many of Thomas Edison's most famous experiments were created in this laboratory. Edison used the best scientific equipment available at the time.
Thomas Edison's workers entertained themselves and relaxed with the organ.
When Thomas Edison visited Greenfield Village he sat in the chair below during a radio broadcast. To commemorate that event Ford decided to have the chair nailed in place. No one has been allowed to sit in the chair since with one exception - on her visit, Helen Keller sat in the chair to help her experience its historic significance. When the floor had to be replaced in the building it was replaced everywhere except under the chair.
He also made sure to keep a wide variety of chemicals and other materials on hand just in case they were needed. (This represents a fraction of the total chemicals.)
A trio of fine actors portrayed the Wrights, Wilbur, Orville and Katherine, to tell us the story of the first powered flight. They stood on the porch of the actual Wright home moved to Greenfield Village from Ohio.
Wilbur and Orville Wright grew up in this house, built in 1871 in Dayton, OH, where they did much of the design work for the airplane.
Only Katharine graduated from college, neither Wilbur nor Orville went beyond high school.
Built in 1860 in Dayton, OH.
Starting in 1899, Wilbur and Orville Wright performed much of the research, experimentation, design and construction of the first successful airplane, the “Wright Flyer,” in this building. They closed their bicycle business in 1904 to concentrate full-time on airplanes, and continued to build improved models here through 1909. The original “Wright Flyer” was built here in sections and shipped, unassembled, to Kitty Hawk, NC. The first flight took place there on December 17, 1903.
"...Unbelievable that sixty-five years later, Neil Armstrong was walking on the moon...this from two brothers with a high school education and from a cycle shop in Dayton, Ohio."
Many houses of historical significance were moved to Greenfield Village including the Ford home, the Edison homestead, the Wright home, the homes of Noah Webster and Robert Frost and many others including the cottage below that I liked because of the limestone shingles on the roof.
Cotswold Cottage was built in 1619 in Chedworth, Gloucestershire, England. It was relocated to its present location in 1930.
The museum closed at 5 pm which was good because I'm not sure we could have walked much more. We were pretty sure we had seen most everything anyway. It was not good that we were facing Detroit's rush hour traffic. Since we had skipped lunch we opted to wait out the traffic at a Mexican restaurant where we could enjoy chips and salsa and a couple of watermelon margaritas before heading home for the evening.
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